Object of the Week - October 9th, 2022- NGC 1055

NGC1055
UGC2173
PGC10208

Galaxy
Class: SBb(sp)

Cetus

RA: 02 41 44.7
Dec: +00 26 31

Mag: 10.5

Size: 7.6’ x 2.6’

NGC 1055 was discovered by William Herschel on December 18^th, 1783. Using his 18.7 f/13 speculum mirrored telescope, Herschel described NGC1055 as a ‘small, like a telescopic comet, between two large and one small stars.”. Lord Rosse and his 72” Leviathan described this weeks OOTW as “a faint dash of light nearly preceding and following; the northern edge is best defined.”. The latter half of Lord Rosse’s description is most relevant to us today in terms of visual appearance. But more on that in a bit.


NGC1055 lies at a distance of nearly 55 Mly in Cetus. Just half a degree NNW of M77, NGC1055 sits amid a slew of other galaxies bookended by NGC1087 to the south and NGC1016 to the north. Mark Friedman highlight NGC1087 in a 2018 OOTW posting linked here. In his 1975 publication Stars and Stellar Systems. Vol. 9: Galaxies and the Universe, French astronomer Gerard de Vaucouleurs assigned NGC 1055 as 2^nd brightest of the 5 brightest members of the Cetus I group of galaxies whose five brightest members are - NGC 1068, 1055, 1073, 1087, and 1090.


Visually, NGC1055 as been spotted in scopes as small as 4 inches. But the galaxy starts to come into its own in scopes upwards of 15 or 18 inches depending on sky quality. I observed this galaxy just last dark moon with my 30” in subpar conditions under Bortle 4 SQM 21.02 skies. At 264x, the galaxy is an elongated NW-SE edge on glow that is rather bright and extended with a superimposed star on its northwestern half. The object has no stellar core by any means. And much as Lord Rosse noticed, the northern half of the galaxy is much more defined and apparent. This can be attributed to the dustlane visible in so many images. Looking at this object is very reminiscent of M104, the Sombrero but not as symbolic.


If you get out this next new moon, please add this one to the list. Not only does it make a nice sight, but it sits in a nice area with so many other interesting objects. Between NGC1055 and Mark Friedmans 2015 post, you’ll have a nice little list of targets to go after!


As always, give it a go and let us know!!

Attachment 4892
©ESO

Attachment 4894
©MegaStar/DSS

Attachment 4893
©ESO

Hi, here's my observation from 11/17/2017: ngc 1055 galaxy in Cetus ; magnitude: 10.6 ; size:7.6' x 2.6' ; fairly bright and elongated; dark lane just visible with averted vision, patience and observing hood. A triangle of faint stars sits right under it. I used a 6mm Ethos at 304x with my 14.5 Starstructure f/4.3Attachment 4895

Saw it with averted vision with a 10" but it was during a break in the clouds, not an optimal night then. On another night, it and M 77 could be seen in the same low power field.

Found an old and more or less rough sketch through my 16-inch. The dark lane was indicated. But even through the 27-inch the dark lane is not stunning when transparency is not good enough.

16", 225x, NELM 6m5+
Attachment 4897
home